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Welcome to the third edition of JLT’s annual Sports Injury Index focusing on the English Premier League.
Each year, JLT’s Sport Injury Index looks at how injuries have affected the English Premier League’s (EPL’s) 20 football clubs over the course of the season (2017-18). The information helps clubs to understand the financial impact of players’ injuries, and assess their injury risk exposure.

Findings

The season’s injury picture is illuminating. The number of injuries is down by almost 10%, at 663 compared to 735 the previous term. Yet there has been a significant rise in the cost of injuries to the 20 EPL clubs. This grew from £176.6 million to £217 million – an increase of just over 21%.In the seven years we’ve been collecting football injury data, we’ve seen a steady rise in the financial impact of injuries to Premier League clubs, as players’ wages have escalated over time. The effect is particularly marked this year: the cost of injuries has risen more than twice as quickly as the rate at which their numbers have fallen.

Injuries & Costs

Highlights

On average, each Premier League team had around 32 injuries to contend with over the 2017- 18 season, costing almost £323,000 per injury. Each club paid out an average of £10.7 million to players on the sidelines due to injury over the course of the season. The busiest physio table belonged to Arsenal, with 54 injuries. Second was West Ham United (50), followed by Liverpool (44).

Arsenal’s extensive injury list came at a cost of £19.3 million – second only to Manchester United in terms of financial impact, on close to £23.3 million. Interestingly, United experienced a relatively modest 37 injuries last season (the club’s injury woes had been one of the big stories of the previous campaign). But the club’s elevated wage bill pushed it to the top of the 2017-18 injury cost rankings.

Number of injuries & costs of injuries by team

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